So-called POD (Print On Demand) systems have become widespread in recent years. Such a system keeps documents such as manuals, catalogs and conference data in storage in the form of electronic documents and prints out the required number of copies at the required time. Directions issued when a print document is created are converted to an electronic document and the electronic document is attached to the print document, thereby making it possible for anyone to obtain output results that reflect the intention of the individual who created the print document.
Further, the Internet also has become widespread and computers can now be interconnected on a global scale. Systems like the aforementioned POD system are now being provided as Internet services referred to as print services. A conventional form of this system that is in vogue involves running print service software as software on the side of a Web server, accepting a print request from a user as a print order document, and relying upon intervention by a human operator to perform actual print processing and management of print-job status.
In the case of a service provided over an intranet, which is a network of limited scope, a form of print service that does not require operator intervention also is available.
One conceivable approach to a print service that does not rely upon operator intervention is to retain a document in a print management server, for example, and allow a client user to access the print management server via a Web browser of the client's own personal computer and to use the Web browser to specify the printing of the document retained by the print management server. However, with this service mode that does not require operator intervention, the range of services that can be provided is limited by the format of the print document and the capability of the printing apparatus.
Further, by transmitting a print command from the client personal computer to the print management server via the Web browser of the personal computer, the print management server converts the document to be printed to print data using a printer driver that has been installed in the server's own system and phrases the resulting print data in JL (Job Language), thereby transmitting the document to the printer as a print job. Accordingly, when a print job ordinarily is generated through the Windows (registered trademark) operating system, the owner name of the print job is generated by acquiring the name of the computer that created the print job. As a consequence, with a print manager (print job management software) that is supported by the Windows operating system, the name of the owner of the print job generated by the print management server in response to a print command from the Web browser of the client personal computer becomes the name of the computer used by the print management server in the above-mentioned printing system that does not rely upon operator intervention. As a result, the user (the individual who ordered printing) utilizing the client personal computer cannot recognize which print job is the one he or she requested to have printed. This is a major problem in that the user cannot ascertain the status of the print job in question. Thus, the provision of a print service that does not rely upon the intervention of a human operator is such that it is difficult for the user to ascertain the status of a print job.